The Sunday Salon: The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman

If you haven't read it grab a copy! Or even better download the audio version!

This YA novel deals with some pretty tough issues: death, racism, alcoholism and even masturbation. You shouldn't let you put you off.
The narrator grows up with a dysfunctional family on an Indian Reservation, despite having brain damage as a child he is determined not to follow the same path as his parents so he travels 25 miles a day (often having to hitch-hike) to attend a better funded state school. His life is cmplicated by his race, what others see as the 'abandonment' of the 'rez and all the normal teenage boy/girl stuff.

The audio book is read by the author and is fantastically done, I was hooked immediately and loved every minute of it. Apparently the novel is has loads of cool pictures so I'll have to grab a copy to look at at some point.
I'll be searching out more of his books in the future.

Challenges:
YA 2009
999
My Year of reading dangerously (banned in Oregan)

Two so-so books that others have rated highly...

Ever pick up a book that others have said is 'great' a 'must-read' and just gone 'err?' I read two books like that so far this week.
The first is the graphic novel Pyongyang by Guy Delise. The French animator is placed in North Korea for a 2 month stint in which he has to check editions of cartoons for French TV. The graphic novel is sold as 'a journey through North Korea' but is actually a single-minded mans view of a small part of North Korea. Now, I'm not saying that North Korea is amazing or politically correct, in fact I know so little about the place that I couldn't make an educated comment on the country, but I can say that Delise is negative about the place from the opening to the end of the book. He never says a single positive thing about the country or the people that he meets, instead he mocks their views, behaviour and culture. Surely if you visit a country you must find something nice to say. Anyone else read this? Have a different opinion?

Challenges:
Graphic Novel Challenge 3/12
A-Z (Title)
In Their Shoes 2/4
Lost in Translation 2/6
The Well Seasoned Reader
My Year of Reading Dangerously 1/12 (Banned

The second disappointing book is sold as 'an American Classic'. The Wonderful O is an extremely short book, which is considered to be one of the 1001 books to read before you die. The simple story is about a pirate who hates the letter O, he travels to a small island where he decides to ban the letter O and all things with that letter in its name. I liked the concept of this but never understood why the people so willingly let this stranger change their world, smash up and ruin their belongings. I liked the rhyming sentences and the amazing amount of things he could ban, and also he ludicrous ways of getting around things ie, you don't have to destroy Cows if they are part of a herd, but it was never gripping and I was happy when it was over.
Challenges
A-Z (Title)
1001 BTRBYD
999 (1001)
Decades Challenge (1950s)
Genre Challenge (Adventure)

A Challenge and a My 100th Book!!!

Another Challenge!!! My Year of Reading Dangerously 2009


Your job: Read 12 books you deem "dangerous." between January 1st and December 31st 2009. They may be banned or challenged books, new-to-you genres, books that seem to inhabit a permanent space on your stacks, or authors you're afraid of. The possibilities are endless! If it's dangerous to you, it's challenge-worthy to us!

My Pool: I'll read some of these and probably discover other books as I read throughout the year.

War and Peace
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

A Passage to India by EM Forester

Night, Dawn, and Day by Elie Wiesel

Inferno, by Dante

Beasts, by Joyce Carol Oates
Man in the Dark, by Paul Auster
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
The End of America, by Naomi Wolf
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Maus I and II, by Art Spiegelman
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Moll Flander's - Defoe (Banned)
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury (Banned)
Brave New World - Huxley (Banned)
Cry, the Beloved Country (Banned)
The House of Spirits, Allende
Wild Swans

My thoughts: Hardboiled/Hardluck by Banana Yoshimoto
I polished off these two novell this weekend. Hardboiled is a strange mystical story about a Japanese woman on a walking trip, everything seems to be fine untill she comes across a shrine, an area with a funny feel to it. The day continues with many strange occurances including fires and ghosts. Very simply told, an easy way to pass an hour but not overly exciting.
Hardluck this was the better of the two, only around 50 pages in length it tells the tale of a young woman waiting for her sister - who has been labelled 'braindead' to die. During this tiem she mets a man, a man she knows ahe would love if only she had met him at another time.

Japanese Literature Challenge book 2/3